A Dialogue Between Memory and Material
Robi Renzi’s sculptural side table for Paola Lenti reimagines the urban palimpsest at the intimate scale of furniture
In Palinsesto, designer Robi Renzi captures the architectural soul of historic cities – those living palimpsests where eras overlap, structures are rewritten, and materials carry the imprint of time. Much like the façades of ancient streets, where reclaimed stones nestle beside new brickwork and stories accumulate in layers, this side table embodies the beauty of continual transformation. Crafted with a natural ash heartwood base and outer frame, the piece anchors itself in material honesty. A varnished blockboard support panel introduces structural clarity, while a multilayer wood top becomes a canvas for intricately handcrafted ceramic panels of varying dimensions. Together, these elements echo the rhythmic collisions of old and new that define the world’s most evocative urban landscapes.
Renzi’s artistic language draws from the textures of industrial materials through its use of embossed metal, dimpled rubber and textured plastics, translating them into deeply tactile refractory ceramics. These unexpected surfaces gain the weight and permanence of stone, creating compositions that shift subtly from piece to piece, just as cities themselves evolve through time. Terracotta inserts appear where needed, grounding the design in the warmth of tradition. Palinsesto is less a table and more a fragment of a broader narrative, a small-scale homage to the constant rewriting of place.
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